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With crude prices sliding again on Thursday, consumer discretionary names led small caps near the brink of erasing all their 2008 shortcomings.

After beginning the year selling off dramatically on fears about the earnings potential of domestically sensitive smaller stocks in the wake of a pick-up in oil, the past few months have been marked by big gains. And though the financials and industrial names have performed better recently, technology has jumped rapidly, while investors in consumer names have taken the slide in oil...